I don’t know about you, but I am a busy person with too little time to read a thousand or more page piece of legislation to determine if it is worth voting yes or no on. I don’t trust politicians are reading the bills either. I also assume that a politician would do something terrible if it meant furthering their goals or keeping to party lines which does a disservice to their constituents. I don’t want my voice corrupted like that… you might disagree.
There are a lot of tools now that will help you sift through the noise in these bloated bills and I like using Chat GPT specifically but it, like so many of them, is only a good as the prompt you give it. These large language models have no moral compass to guide them so I’ve developed one. I call them the 7 principles and it’s pretty much how I try to live my life day to day. I won’t knock anyone for having faith or practicing any religion… freedom of or from religion is baked into my culture after all, so the principles are 100% secular in nature and can be used by anyone practicing any faith or no faith.
7 Principles –
First, do not cause injury or damage to others. Defining harm is a tricky bit, but the spirit of the principle is harm as in physical or measurable harm or damage. Theft, murder, bodily injury, causing damage to property or reputation etc. These are things I would consider doing injury or damage. Disagreeing with someone else’s opinion or actions that have no baring on your own life is not them “doing harm” to you. You have to have a certain level of maturity here.
Second, help others when possible, as long as it doesn’t cause harm. Don’t bulldoze a neighborhood just to put in a highway. You might be helping the drivers but you’re killing a community. It doesn’t make sense. This is what the second principle is about.
Third, take care of yourself, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the first two. This is one issue I take with politicians as a whole. They’re usually in it for themselves. Most of them may start out with noble intentions, but end up where most of them are now. Look at what they’re worth financially and you’ll see that their worth as a human is diametrically opposed to it. Self service should never cause harm to others.
Fourth, treat others fairly and justly. Fairly in this context would be basically how you would expect to be treated. If you don’t want to be yelled at, slurred, slandered, then don’t do it to others. If you would want to be set free, set others free. If you would want to be rewarded, reward others. Put yourself in the shoes of those you would judge.
Fifth, respect others’ autonomy and their right to make their own choices, as long as it doesn’t cause harm. Again harm is measurable damage or injury. If you don’t like drag queens, don’t go to drag shows. You must respect the rights of others to do as they will if they’re not hurting anyone. I get that a lot of people think that a parade, a rainbow, a man in a a dress, or whatever is going to “harm the kids” but show me the independent study that proves it and I will consider your point. Harm must be measured to be real. It can’t just be based on difference of opinion.
Sixth, contribute positively to the community and the common good. What do you bring to the table? Going to work and providing for the family is a good step, but do you contribute anything to the community at large? Have you ever stood up and defended someone, do you give fruit from your tree away? Do you volunteer or donate or otherwise give of yourself to help others even if it’s just a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen? That is all it takes.
Seventh, act truthfully and transparently to maintain trust and honesty. Be the person you appear to be. If you’re a jerk, that’s fine… don’t try to appear not to be just to get ahead Learn from the outcome. If you do something wrong, own it. Don’t lie about who you are to gain favor. Maybe if you need to lie, then you don’t deserve the favor to begin with. That might call for some self-reflection, don’t you think?
These principles are just one framework around which lives can be lived and decisions can be made. Taking these into consideration when analyzing legislation is a good start down a road to redemption for the USA in my opinion.
Here’s a prompt you can use to examine any new bill under the framework of the 7 principles to see how it measures up:
“Please analyze the following piece of legislation through the lens of the Seven Principles, considering both immediate and long-term impacts. The Seven Principles are: 1) Do not cause injury or damage to others; 2) Help others when possible without causing harm; 3) Take care of yourself without conflicting with the first two principles; 4) Treat others fairly and justly; 5) Respect others’ autonomy and their right to make their own choices; 6) Contribute positively to the community and the common good; and 7) Act truthfully and transparently. Additionally, consider the long-term economic, social, and environmental impacts of the legislation. Based on these principles and long-term considerations, does the legislation align with them, and where might it fall short?”
You can plug that prompt into the large language model of your choice and then drop in the PDF of a bill you want analyzed. They’ll tell you if it measures up or not. Get the bill PDF here for your review or check your state’s or city’s websites for more local legislation to analyze.